NBA opening night is dampered slightly by the absence of Zion Williamson, but we can still have all sorts of NBA DFS fun: LeBron James and Anthony Davis vs. Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers in Staples Center. The early game gets the new-look Pelicans even without Zion: Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram should provide a younthful tinge to the New Orleans lineup. There are plenty of DraftKings opportunities: You can play a cash game or GPP for the two-game slate, or you can put together a Showdown lineup for the individual games. We’ve got them all right here for the daily fantasy basketball picks, values, sleepers and advice you need.
When it comes to the two-game slate, we’d avoid cash games. You’ve got to take a shot at some differentiation and winning a GPP tournament. There just aren’t enough players to choose from to feel overly confident in a cash lineup. The Showdown lineups are both pretty straightforward. We avoid the best of the best in our captain’s slot in both in order to load up more of the FLEX spots with studs.
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DraftKings NBA DFS Picks for Tuesday, Oct. 22
PG Lonzo Ball, Pelicans @ Raptors ($5,400). Lonzo provides a good floor-ceiling mixture. We know he’ll get his assists, rebounds and defensive stats. If his improved jumper can lead to a decent scoring day, we could be looking at the bonus DK points for a double-double or even a triple-double.
SG Landry Shamet, Clippers vs. Lakers ($4,200). Shamet is our only Clippers’ representation, which could backfire but maybe differentiates us from the crowd. With Paul George out, Shamet might be the most important three-point shooter the Clippers can use on Tuesday, so he should get a chance to light it up from deep.
SF OG Anunoby, Raptors vs. Pelicans ($3,900). Anunoby has turned heads in the preseason and should step right into Kawhi Leonard’s spot in Toronto’s lineup. He won’t be asked to score as much, but with an expanding offensive game, he’ll surprise people in 2019-20. This is way too cheap. I would’ve played Anunoby at $5,500.
PF Brandon Ingram, Pelicans @ Raptors ($5,800). If a running Pelicans team gets things going with Lonzo at the helm, Ingram could be a beneficiary as he joins him on the Pelicans this season. It’s our best New Orleans secondary player to play in this lineup construction.
C Pascal Siakam, Raptors vs. Pelicans ($7,600). Siakam will have to be the man this season for Toronto with no Kawhi, and we’ll take the chances that he’ll have his expanded role figured out right away after he was a star in last season’s playoffs.
G LeBron James, Lakers @ Clippers ($9,900). Yup, we’re stacking LeBron and AD. Why not? It’s opening night, they’re both as healthy as they’ll be all season, and if it’s worth anything, their chemistry was on point in the preseason.
F Nicolo Melli, Pelicans @ Raptors ($3,000). With Zion out, the European import Melli is likely to play the most power forward minutes for the Pelicans on opening night. He’s obviously a relative unknown, but with good minutes in a high-paced offense at this price, we’ll go with it.
UTIL Anthony Davis, Lakers @ Clippers ($10,200). Kawhi is going to play an important defensive role on one of these Lakers’ studs — more likely LeBron — leaving Davis to dominate in the scoring column. Both give a great chance of reaching some of the DK bonus point thresholds.
DraftKings Showdown NBA DFS Picks: Raptors vs. Pelicans
CAPTAIN (1.5x points, 1.5x price): Lonzo Ball, Pelicans ($10,500). As I wrote above, Lonzo has a great floor-ceiling combination, and if we can get a double-double bonus with the captain multiplier, that’ll be a good start.
FLEX: Jrue Holiday, Pelicans ($10,400). Holiday provides a similar floor-ceiling combination as Lonzo, just with better scoring.
FLEX: Pascal Siakam, Raptors ($9,800). The Raptors’ best player will be highly owned, and rightfully so. It’s not worth fading him.
FLEX: Kyle Lowry, Raptors ($8,800). Lowry will be forced to be a distributor against New Orleans’ strong defensive backcourt, but that’s fine. He’ll have to try and score, too – it won’t be efficient, but the numbers should work out well.
FLEX: Derrick Favors, Pelicans ($7,600). Favors might be revitalized with the youth around him in a fast-paced New Orleans offense. His minutes might be up with Zion out, too.
FLEX: Nicolo Melli, Pelicans ($2,800). Melli’s price is too cheap for the minutes I expect him to see, as I wrote above.
DraftKings Showdown NBA DFS Lineup: Lakers vs. Clippers
CAPTAIN (1.5x points, 1.5x price): Dwight Howard, Lakers ($6,900). We’re taking a bet here on a cheap double-double from Howard. It might be 12 and 10, but that’ll get us the DK bonus points and allow us to star stack the rest of this lineup.
FLEX: Anthony Davis, Lakers ($10,800). His Lakers’ debut in the Staples Center should be fun.
FLEX: LeBron James, Lakers ($10,200). LeBron is always an odds-on favorite to pile up points, rebounds and assists, get a DK bonus for a double-double and carry a fantasy lineup. Potentially being guarded by Kawhi won’t slow that enough to fade him.
FLEX: Kawhi Leonard, Clippers ($9,800). Especially with no Paul George, there will be a lot of shots for Kawhi.
FLEX: Lou Williams, Clippers ($7,800). No George also means Sweet Lou will have to be a serious bucket getter off the bench.
FLEX: Landry Shamet, Clippers ($4,200). Shamet has to fill George’s three-point shooter role, and he’ll do it well. He shot 42 percent from distance in 2018-19.